I am selling a house I used to live in to someone who is going to completely gut it and rebuild it. I have renters there now, and they will be there for another two months. The hot water heater just started leaking. Should I replace it?

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| The most important thing you should know about me is that I am not an expert.

I did not make this clear enough. The house is being sold "as is". The will be spending over $100K on the rehab and would probably put in a larger hot water heater. My big concern is if it will last two months and what will happen if it doesn't last. What is the danger of letting it go too long?

3 questions:How badly is it leaking?Where is it leaking?How old is the WH?

It leaks about one drop every 3 seconds.I am not sure where it is leaking from. It come out of the bottom, not out of a pipe.It is about 10 years old.

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| The most important thing you should know about me is that I am not an expert.

Call around to some plumbers to see if they have something useable second hand they'd slap in cheap.

I once rented a house that we all knew would be torn down soon and the land developed. The heating boiler (oil / hot water) had a leak. For 6 months we mopped the floor while the landlord insisted it was coming from the foundation next to the unit; we finally persuaded him to replace it with a second-hand boiler pulled out of a house expansion that needed a bigger model. He was a used car dealer, and made a deal with the plumbers-- used boiler for used work van. The oil burner wasn't set up properly and sort of exploded one night, and when the plumbers came to repair it they mentioned the van was rusted out. They got it working again but the burner chamber was cracked from the explosion, and the outside of the unit got so hot it would almost glow. So, fair deal all around. Best place I ever rented, oddly, and the longest I've ever lived anywhere since childhood. We got along great with the landlord, cheap rent and I did some work on the house, he helped me with some car repairs a few times and even sold me an adequate used car.

If the water heater is in a closet inside the house, I'd replace it as soon as possible. If the rusted out bottom completely fails, your home could get some serious water damage. Even your insurance deductable would cost more than a wh replacement.If it's in the garage, it's your call.

The urgency of replacing the water heater depends on whether or not the leak, if it gets bad, will damage the renter's property. If the water heater is in a drip pan with a drain, or next to a floor drain in a basement, I would not replace the waterheater unless it failed to work or the leak became so bad it used too much water and electricity/natural gas.

Otherwise, I'd replace it as economically as possible if the leak gets much worse.

bluemarlin08 wrote:You can get a 50gal water heater for about 300. Installation is fairly easy, I am not a handyman put my last 2 in myself. You will pay about the same price for installation.

Dito on replacing it yourself. I replaced the one in our house with a GE natural gas 40 gallon one from Home Depot for about $450. In my location plumbers replace hot water heaters for about $1600. I did have to move the inlet and outlet water pipes a little and shorten the vent stack because the new one was about six inches taller than the old water heater. If you can't sweat solder copper pipe, it's easy to learn or you can use flexible (corregated) copper hook up pipes you can screw on.

Having a leaking WH is akin to asking for a disaster.It could turn into a major leak at any time especially considering the age of the heater.

And it will most likely happen in the middle of the night if you are on city water and don't have a pressure regulator installed.City water pressure rises at night as most homes and business are not reliving the pressure in the community thru usage.A small leak can turn into a huge leak and at a higher water pressure during the night will go unnoticed till morning yieldinga swimming pool of water flood when it finally gets discovered.

As far as a DIY installation, I have changed out about 5 or so Electric WH through the years. Not hard IF you know what you are doing.

IF you don't know what you are doing you could have some very bad experiences.1. 220v electric 2. Plumbing, copper, pvc/cpvc Cold/Hot, PEX, the correct kind of glue for each. Teflon tape, Pressure relieve valve, expansion tank.

And thats just an electric one.

I...don't have a clue how to change out a Gas one and I don't know if I would give it a shot or not as I have never played with Gas WH's or owned one before.

There are people who should NEVER DIY with anything, if you are one of those hire a plumber.If you know what your doing then go for it.

I just had a new HVAC system installed, and while they did it they put in a higher efficiency water heater. The cost of just the water heater, and installation may have been lower due to the other things, was $675.

Daniel |
"Knowledge is the only thing no one can ever take away from you" - My Father

Actually, it's called a "water heater," not a "hot water heater." I used to work at the local electric company and we used to joke about people saying this all the time. No need to heat up water that's already hot...

I am having it replaced Monday. A cheap 40 gallon gas heater at home is $350. My handyman will charge another $400 to pick it up, repair wood under it and install it. I am not very handy myself. I will be spending $750 but I need to do it for the renters who will be there another 2 months. People here have convinced me of the danger of doing nothing for 2 months.

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| The most important thing you should know about me is that I am not an expert.

The hot water heater in one of my rentals went out recently. The renter is a licensed plumber. He said he charges $100.00 to replace water heaters and that is what he charged me. I bought a 40 gallon electric water heater at Lowes for $270.00 plus tax. Total cost was $370.00. One of the posters said that plumbers in his area charge $1,600.00 just to install a hot water heater. I don't know where he lives, but that sounds like a lot for installing a hot water heater.

I don't see how you could afford to do it for $100, unless you sell the heater at a profit. I would like to find someone to do it for $100, but both of the guys I talked to wanted $400, but that included fittings, pick up and wood repair. On the other hand I can't imagine paying $1600.

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| The most important thing you should know about me is that I am not an expert.

tc101 wrote:I don't see how you could afford to do it for $100, unless you sell the heater at a profit. I would like to find someone to do it for $100, but both of the guys I talked to wanted $400, but that included fittings, pick up and wood repair. On the other hand I can't imagine paying $1600.

As I said, my renter is a licensed plumber. He actually works for a plumbing company, but he does work on the side including installing water heaters.That might be why he did it so cheap. Also I picked up the water heater at Lowes and brought it to him. He didn't have to go get it. The only thing he had to do was install it. Also, since I have rental properties, I am always looking for service people who are reasonable. I also called several places to get the cheapest price on the water heater.

Abe wrote:The hot water heater in one of my rentals went out recently. The renter is a licensed plumber. He said he charges $100.00 to replace water heaters and that is what he charged me. I bought a 40 gallon electric water heater at Lowes for $270.00 plus tax. Total cost was $370.00. One of the posters said that plumbers in his area charge $1,600.00 just to install a hot water heater. I don't know where he lives, but that sounds like a lot for installing a hot water heater.

Abe wrote:The hot water heater in one of my rentals went out recently. The renter is a licensed plumber. He said he charges $100.00 to replace water heaters and that is what he charged me. I bought a 40 gallon electric water heater at Lowes for $270.00 plus tax. Total cost was $370.00. One of the posters said that plumbers in his area charge $1,600.00 just to install a hot water heater. I don't know where he lives, but that sounds like a lot for installing a hot water heater.

That was me. Northern Virginia. Everything is expensive here.

--Nate

Thanks Nate: I bet if you check around, even where you live, you could probably get it done much cheaper. Ask people who work at hardware stores and people who own rental properties if they could recommend someone who does this kind or work reasonably. A lot of time, people work for someone else, but they do it on the side. Their overhead is low so they can do it cheaper. I'm not trying to meddle, but just thought this might save you some money in the future.

Abe wrote:The hot water heater in one of my rentals went out recently. The renter is a licensed plumber. He said he charges $100.00 to replace water heaters and that is what he charged me. I bought a 40 gallon electric water heater at Lowes for $270.00 plus tax. Total cost was $370.00. One of the posters said that plumbers in his area charge $1,600.00 just to install a hot water heater. I don't know where he lives, but that sounds like a lot for installing a hot water heater.

I just purchased a water heater from Sears on-line and paid $370 to have it installed. The Sears installer charged an additional $580 even though it was a simple 1 hour install bringing the total installation to $950. I called Sears to say I considered this excessive and a form of "bait and switch". The response from Sears was, "if you could have found a cheaper plumber, you should have used them". Needless to say I'm through with Sears forever.

Last edited by yosh99 on Thu Mar 14, 2013 10:22 pm, edited 5 times in total.

Timely question. My WH just started leaking one night. Wife and I spent two hours draining it, carrying the water up the stair to dump down the sink, as we have no floor drain.

Since it was a GE WH and under the 12 year warranty, HD honored a full replacement. A friend showed me how to use the "Shark Bite" flexible, no weld tubing. After hiring someone to get the old one up the stairs, and bring the new one back down from HD for $60, the two of us installed the new gas WH in about an hour for ~$50 parts.

SharkBite, whoever invented that is a genius and probably a multimillionaire.

Abe wrote:The hot water heater in one of my rentals went out recently. The renter is a licensed plumber. He said he charges $100.00 to replace water heaters and that is what he charged me. I bought a 40 gallon electric water heater at Lowes for $270.00 plus tax. Total cost was $370.00. One of the posters said that plumbers in his area charge $1,600.00 just to install a hot water heater. I don't know where he lives, but that sounds like a lot for installing a hot water heater.

I just purchased a water heater from Sears on-line and paid $370 to have it installed. The Sears installer charged an additional $580 even though it was a simple 1 hour install bringing the total installation to $950. I called Sears to say I considered this excessive and a form of "bait and switch". The response from Sears was, "if you could have found a cheaper plumber, you should have used them". Needless to say I'm through with Sears forever.

I don't understand. You paid $370 to have it installed and you paid $580 to have it installed?